'Pupils are accepted and loved. They understand their worth and potential as life-long learners and as a child of God.'
Operation Encompass
Operation Encompass has been created to inform school if a child has heard, witnessed or been involved in a domestic violence incident. This knowledge, given to schools through Operation Encompass, allows the provision of immediate and appropriate support, nurture and compassion for that child.
At St Nicholas, our nominated Key Adults are our Child and Family Support Worker and the Headteacher.
All police forces are fully implementing Operation Encompass using the key guiding principles:
- The sharing of information is between police and all schools in their force area.
- All domestic abuse incidents will be shared where there is a child related to either adult involved, whether that be a crime or non-crime incident and irrespective of the risk assessment level
- Domestic abuse incidents in children’s own relationships will also be shared, as will child to parent abuse
- The sharing of information must occur prior to the start of the next school day so that school staff have the opportunity to prepare for the child before they arrive at the school site and to ensure that from the very first interaction, the child experiences a positive and understanding response from school staff.
- The context of the incident is also shared so that professionals can appropriately support and safeguard the child and not re-traumatise or place the child or adult victims at any additional risk. Including context is a crucial aspect of ensuring that the sharing is not merely an ‘exchange of information’ but rather that it is an effective communication with schools, colleges, Health Visitors and Early Years settings to ensure that the impact for the child can begin to be understood and from that appropriate support, nurture and compassion can emanate.
